Swindon & Wiltshire Business News

The Now Vauxhall site in MarlboroughTroubled motor dealership Now Vauxhall has been split up and sold after it went into administration.

Five retail car dealerships in southern England have been sold to two companies by administrators Smith & Williamson.

The Swindon dealership at Langley Road, Hillmead, has been acquired by the Eden Motor Group, which has 20 showrooms and services centres across southern England and sells Vauxhall, Mazda, Fiat, Hyundai and Peugeot vehicles.

Kingston, Hayes, Heathrow and Staples Corner in London have been purchased by Go Vauxhall, a Vauxhall dealership with sites across the city, Kent and the West Midlands.

But the administrators were unable to find a buyer for the Now Vauxhall dealership at Marlborough, with the loss of nine jobs. Customers of the Marlborough branch were told that servicing and warranty deals would be honoured by Now Vauxhall in Swindon. Eden has since pledged to honour existing customer agreements.

Greg Palfrey, national head of restructuring and recovery services at Smith & Williamson, said: “Working with management and with our extensive turnaround experience in the retail motoring sector, we sought expressions of interest.

“As a result two buyers came forward in the tight timeframe, helping to save many of the 250 jobs depending on this successful outcome.

"It is a matter of public record that the retail motor sector is going through another testing time, with market forces outside the control of single brand and multi-brand dealerships, however well run they are, with Now Motor Retailing being very profitable up until the end 2016.”

Now Motor Retailing acquired the Swindon and Marlborough dealerships in January 2016. They had previously been part of family firm Skurrays – which, dating back to 1899, was the oldest name in the UK motor trade.